Taapsee
who stole hearts as Irene in Aadukalam is ready with
her next project Vandhaan Vendraan directed by Kannan
with Jiiva as her co-star. Catch Taapsee in conversation
with behindwoods discussing about the film.

Anjana of VV is different from

Irene of Aadukalam

Your
character in Vandhaan Vendraan

My
role as Anjana in Vandhaan Vendraan is a major
transition and is a totally different type
of director and story. And people who watch
the movie will not realize that it’s
the same girl who played Irene in Aadukalam.
Vandhaan Vendraan’s Anjana is as mature
as Irene but she is an educated city girl,
an architect, a millionaire’s daughter
who wants to make a mark of her own. So she
is in Chennai while her dad is in Mumbai.
She has no airs of being a millionaire’s
daughter. First of all, the movie will have
her as a very simple girl; not the regular
bubbly, chirpy college girl. Second half shows
her as a more adamant and serious girl whom
you cannot take for granted.

We see you are a gun toting girl in the movie.
Comment

There
is a scene with a gun in my hand but I will
have to leave it to you to wait until the
movie is released to see what that is about.
But yes, I do have a gun in my hand in the
movie.

I do have a gun

I am lucky to have a director like

Kannan

Do
you have more importance than the hero in
VV?

Well,
that I will leave up to you to decide after
watching the movie. I am really thankful to
the director. I couldn’t believe that
a director would trust a newcomer so much.
When I was committed to Vandhaan Vendraan,
Aadukalam was not out. Not even images from
the movie were out. So much of trust and confidence
in a newcomer; I am really lucky to have a
director like Kannan. He is my source of encouragement.
That fact that he trusted me so much made
me work hard in the movie.

Was the movie
shot completely outside Chennai?

Only a few patchwork scenes were shot in Chennai.
We went to Karnataka, Goa, Mumbai and the places we
went to shoot were all new, never before seen in movies.
It was a tough journey and every time I finish my
Vandhaan Vendraan schedule I lost some weight.

Were lots of
scenes shot in Mumbai too?

Yeah. Since my character is from Mumbai, you will
see a lot of Mumbai in the movie.

What is the status
of your knowledge of Tamil now?

I can understand Tamil if you speak slowly. In my
first movie I hardly spoke Tamil and in this movie
there are a lots of dialogues and thanks to that,
I can understand about 75% of the language.

Do you dub in
Telugu?

I dub for myself in Telugu. I am working in my fifth
Telugu movie with Prabhas. I play the role of an NRI
and I cannot get the accent right and do the producer
and director felt it’s ok to let me dub.

Have you watched Kannan’s earlier movies?

I
haven’t watched his movies but I have
seen the rushes and songs of his movies before.
Jab We Met remake was a female oriented story.
It also didn’t strike me at that time
that Kannan is a person who gives importance
to his female characters. But only when I
was doing the movie I realized the importance
Kannan gives his female characters in this
male dominant industry.

Kannan gives importance to his

women characters

I will try to stay away from

remake movies

What
is your take on remakes?

I
will not say that I won’t do remakes.
I am scared because I hate the fact that people
tend to compare the remake movie with the
original and I hate that comparison. As far
as possible, I will try to stay away from
remake movies but I cannot completely do that.
My first Bollywood movie is a remake of an
old Hindi movie. I am not saying I will totally
avoid but I am a little scared of remakes.

Any difference in the regional film industries
you have worked in so far?

I
love the fact that in Tamil movies they do
not want me to put make up and prefer me as
I am. That is very easy for an artist. I do
not have to worry about my hair or make up
but only dialogues. When you are overly made
up you are conscious about everything and
tensed. That way I like Tamil people a lot.
In Aadukalam there was completely no makeup
and I even used my regular hairstyle and the
clothes were not ultra fashionable so that
was a very easy movie for me.

I like Tamil people a lot

Other than the fact that the Telugu folks love films
to be larger than life and more dramatic, there is
not much difference. In Tamil, people love their movies
to be realistic and devoid of cinematic largesse.

I share good professional

rapport with Dhanush and Jiiva

Difference
between Jiiva and Dhanush

Both
of them are of the same age, professional
and are married with kids. I don’t know
both of them that well to really spot out
differences. Both of them were equally nice
and friendly. I share a very good professional
rapport with both.

Do you look for any inspiration from Bollywood
/ Hollywood movies?

No, I hate doing that. I don’t watch
a movie for somebody’s performance but
for the sake of watching it. If I see someone
and start copying their style then my originality
is gone. I really would like to grow on my
own and make mistakes and learn. That is why
I do not have any dream roles because I want
to do different roles from my previous movies
and hence do not have a fixed role in mind.

I do not have any dream roles

I don’t want to speak bad Tamil

When
are you planning to dub in Tamil movies?

I
don’t think people in Tamil Nadu are
really ready to receive a really bad accented
Tamil. It took me very long to dub in Telugu
movies and it’s a difficult process.
I took six – seven days to finish my
dubbing but the feeling was amazing. It felt
very good and I want to do that in Tamil as
well. But it’s not easy to speak in
a language you never spoke in your entire
life. I do not want to sound really weird
and make people hate me for imperfect Tamil.
I do not want to land up in that trouble.

How was it to work with Santhanam?

It’s
very sad that I do not have any combination
scenes with Santhanam. I have heard a lot
about him and have seen him in Vaanam. Though
we are in the same movie, we did not work
together. I really would like to work with
him.

I want to work with Santhanam

Your favorite
song in VV

I love the Anjana Anjana song. I had the same feeling
when I heard the Yaathe Yaathe song as well. It is
a lovely song.

Your dance moves
for the movie

There are subtle dance moves in the movie but no hardcore
ones as such. For the Kanchanamala song we tried indo-western
style of dance. I am a trained classical dancer and
could pick the dance steps fast. I love dancing but
I have the opportunities to use them only in Telugu
movies.

Your next movie
in Tamil

In Tamil I haven’t decided on anything and am
listening to scripts. In Telugu I am working in Mugudu
with Krishna Vamsi, one movie with Ravi Teja, and
my Hindi movie is starting soon.